The Best $10,000.00 Table + Cartridge

There is no best at any price point. In the range your asking about there are a ton of choices that come down to personal preference. Find a good dealer and let him help you.

06-20-08: Rccc
There is no best at any price point. In the range your asking about there are a ton of choices that come down to personal preference.

True. They all have compromises--belt drive, rim drive, direct drive, mass-loaded, suspended, 9" arm, 12" arm, etc.

You need to hear the sonic signatures of the various design philosophies (and their executions) and go for a good representative of the type the presents music the most like you perceive it.

Audiofiel,

Please explain your so called expert opinion. Inquiring minds would like to know.

Come on - you want a table, arm and cart all for under $10K?

This is an audiophile forum. We're interested in quality playback, and I'm afraid on such a tight budget you'll basically be getting a few notches above the model sold by Kenner in the 60's. I believe it was called the "Close and play"

Of course your "starter" LP rig will be more gentle on LP's than the Kenner model, and will probably offer some method of adjusting tracking force, which I don't believe the Kenner had.

In the impossible task of suggesting a table, as someone already suggested, the budget model TW Acustic may fit your bill. It is quite austere looking and offers "no frills" playback.
You will be able to discern the various instruments recorded on the LP, but don't expect much in the way of fidelity. A halfway decent arm would use up the rest of your budget, leaving almost nothing for a cart.

Don't use a ceramic stylus - we use diamond styli around here. See if you can swing it.

I really feel for your predicament, perhaps you can avoid listening to music for a while and get a paper route to save up the extra cash necessary to get decent sound. But then again I'm severely sleep deprived and overworked this week and there are a lot of zero's in the title of this thread, and I'm not good with decimal points.

Audiofiel,

Please explain your so called expert opinion. Inquiring minds would like to know.

I think he means that VPI is an over-priced, over-advertised, mid-fi brand that is no match for comparably priced products from companies like Teres, Galibier, and Basis. But I will let Bill speak for himself.